A suspected serial rapist had no option but to suggest that fingerprint evidence linking him to an attack was fabricated, a court was told yesterday.

Antoni Imiela, formerly of Newton Aycliffe, claimed there had been a "plant" of his print on a bag carried by a 14-year-old rape victim because "even he" could not explain the link, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

The 49-year-old denies raping eight women and girls in Kent, Surrey, south-west London and Hertfordshire between November 2001 and October 2002.

The railway worker, now of Appledore, near Ashford, Kent, also denies the kidnap, indecent assault and attempted rape of a ten-year-old girl in Birmingham on November 21, 2002.

Continuing his closing speech to the jury, Mark Dennis, prosecuting, said that the fingerprint was "absolutely conclusive evidence" that Imiela had been the man who raped the teenager in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in October 2002.

He said that Imiela had only "two options", one of which was to admit that he touched the bag and the other being to "cry 'fit-up"'.